Existentialism In The Movie Forrest Gump

The film, Forrest Gump, is a romantic drama riddled with comedy. The plotline follows Forrest Gump and his childhood love Jenny. Although they live separate lives, their paths continually cross over time. Forrest, the main character, is a young man who has a low IQ. Despite this obstacle, he manages to excel in life and even grasp the meaning of love. He is quite naïve, but still lovable. Although he faces many difficult circumstances throughout his life, these challenges are matched with success and joys. Audiences find the film one full of spectacular special effects and heartwarming scenes. The novel, however, has a different plot line and falls into a completely different genre.

The movie Forrest Gump played by Tom Hank is a story about Forest Gump a simple man and his journey through life. Gump was simple minded and lived his life by a set of values taught to him by his mother (Sally Field). While Forest sat down waiting for a bus, he tells his story. Forest takes part in several defining historical moments such as the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal and also had painful experiences. Despite his setbacks and naive nature, he struggles and triumphs in everything he did. Forrest developed a good self-esteem and self-concept with the help of his mother’s observation, love, and sincerity. With his mother and Jenny’s encouragements, he was able to overcome his physical handicap and become an outstanding runner among other things. This movie is an example of the how a child’s mind developed through series of stages. This paper shows the following key points; intellectual disability, Erickson’s intimacy vs isolation, low self-esteem, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

A general theme in Forrest Gump is fate. We see it everywhere; in Jenny, in Lieutenant Dan, in the feather, the box of chocolates, even Forrest himself. The film tells the story of Forrest’s life. The good and the bad, the people he meets, the things he accomplishes, and the hardships he faces are all part of a plan. Fate can be pretty funny. Forrest started out with bad legs, no friends, and no education but throughout the movie he makes many friends, saves lives, becomes very wealthy, and marries the girl of his dreams.

Existentialism is a philosophy that puts emphasis on the existence of a person’s freedom or life. In a human point of view, it means to believe in oneself, not a group or religion. (33)

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” Forrest Gump is the portrayal of a man that has been alienated from society, not because he is unintelligent or dimwitted, but rather because he is not restricted by the conventional ideals which are embedded within his culture; thus, Forrest challenges the conformities and principals that most people are accustomed to. The contrast that Robert Zemeckis, director of the film, is attempting to convey through the character of Forrest Gump is how most people are too smart for there own good; and thus, try to escape the realities and actualities of life. While other characters in the story are suppressed by society’s conflicts, Forrest remains blinded

People tend to find meaning in all aspects of life, and they rely and examine symbols to gain further insight into their life. Symbolism is prevalent in numerous films, however, in the 1994 film “Forrest Gump” by Robert Zemeckis intertwines symbolism to introduce the general themes of the film. In the film “Forrest Gump” the filmmaker focuses on the interesting life of Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump is an innocent honest man, who like many, has overcome adversity to achieve success. This same adversity helps Forrest and his general outlook on life. Through all these obstacles, he is an all star football, receives an honorary medal in the Vietnam war and sets up a successful shrimp business. As the film progresses, Robert Zemeckis, does an excellent job of adding important symbols that help the audience gain a better understanding of the characters and the film itself. This adversity and perspective on life is personified through objects such as the box of chocolates which represent uncertainty, the feather which appears at the beginning and the end and furthermore, the concept of running is a repetitious symbol in the film, all have important roles in shaping the lives of characters portrayed in the film.

Forrest Gump is about a slow-witted man named Forrest who becomes a football star, a soldier in the vietnam war, and a shrimp boat captain. The director, Robert Zemeckis, uses irony and juxtaposition to convey his message that life is full of surprises and that you never know what to expect. Irony is the first device used to convey his message. Zemeckis utilizes irony when he shows that you do not have to live a fast paced life in order to be involved in major events. Also, irony is imparted when the life of Forrest Gump is compared to that of his childhood friend, Jenny.

In the film Forrest Gump directed by Robert Zemeckis one of the most inspirational movie characters ever was born, Forrest Gump. Forrest symbolizes the way we wish to deal with the problems we face throughout the course of our lives, and how we would go about solving them if the Universe was on our side. Forrest had 3 essential qualities to separate himself from others. Honesty, integrity, and compassion; if you have these 3 qualities as Forrest did, life will seem to work out for the best. Making it easier to find true happiness.

  Existentialism is a philosophy dealing with man's aloneness in the universe. Either there is no God or else God stands apart from man, leaving him free will to make his own choices. From this basic idea of man being alone in an uncertain and purposeless world, many related ideas have developed. One great worry of existentialist writers is that life is becoming too complicated and too impersonal. People become more and more involved with their work, which is taking them away from their friends, family, and culture. However, these provide the only "meaning" that life could possibly have. One author prominently known for his work with existential ideas was Franz

Forrest is born to an Alabama boardinghouse Owner (Sally Field) who tries to correct his posture by making him wear braces, but who never criticizes his mind. When Forrest is called "stupid," his mother tells him, "Stupid is as stupid does," and Forrest turns out to be incapable of doing anything less than profound. Also, when the braces finally fall from his legs, it turns out he can run like the wind. That's how he gets a college football scholarship, in a life story that eventually becomes

The existentialist is one who is concerned only with that intense moment of awareness with only his senses at his disposal, never looking to the future – the most living awareness. McCandles, the protagonist, in Into the Wild has come to the realization that existence is already being dead and accepting the fact that life is absurd and marvelous. He embraced the sublime absurdity of existence by renouncing the language games society plays. What is so enticing about the existentialist is that he is not concerned with the pressure of appearances and small talk which society employs to lie about what they think and feel. Existentialism is accepting the inevitability of death and living life for the moment without entertaining hope or falsities that distract one from living and accepting truth. The existentialist sees the simplicity in life and the absurdity of complicating it with pretences and lies, the existentialist is a naked man, he is one who becomes one with the rest of creation in accepting his fate on this earth and not hoping for anything more – he simply exists.

By the definition of existentialism, it is the theory that one gives an action a value by the virtue of choosing said action to begin with. It is an approach that emphasizes any existence of an individual that is “condemned to be free” (McCutcheon, p. 91) and are therefore agents who have no other choice but to be accountable for those actions in which they produce. In a way, it is as if existentialism is contrary to essentialism. The idea that existence precedes essence manifests itself in the movie Fight Club. This movie shows many themes of existentialism, where the main character struggles between his “everyday self” and the “inner self” he longs to become. The Narrator soon learns that it is only when one strips away everything they thought they knew about themselves—down to an empty shell of who they are—that you may build back up into a new and complete person with a real identity and the capability of decision making. The three themes of existentialism that the movie portrays are: (1)) the awareness of what you are and assuming responsibility, (2) the aspect of choosing how one may define themselves with respect to the world they exist in, and lastly, (3) the confrontation of mental pain in order to reach a genuine state of “being for itself”.

The Merriam – Webster Dictionary defines existentialism as a chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad (Merriam, 2011). In other words, an existentialist believes that our natures are the natures we make for ourselves, the meaning of our existence is that we just exist and there may or may not be a meaning for the existence, and we have to individually decide what is right or wrong and good or bad for ourselves. No one can answer any of those things for us. A good

Forrest Gump is a movie that was released in the summer of 1994 and is based on a novel by the same name that was written by Winston Groom almost a decade earlier in 1986. The movie was directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Paramount Pictures. The film features Tom Hanks as the main character Forrest Gump who is a slow-witted character but also has a heart of gold and is extremely courageous. The supporting cast consists of Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan), Robin Wright (Forrest’s mother) , Sally Field(Jenny) , Mykelti Williamson (Bubba), among others. In this critique I will be summarizing the plot and analyzing what I liked and disliked about the movie and whether it stands the test of time.

Motivation can be seen as a watch. Having the time keeps an individual moving forwards; places to go; tasks to be done; a life to live. When the watch breaks --or the battery dies-- and the hands on the watch stop ticking, this is a representation of when a particular person’s motivation stands still; an individual possessing no time on their hands. In Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump, Jenny’s life is the watch. Her abusive father molesting Jenny at a young age represents the watch dying, her happiness and motivation froze in that moment. Therefore, Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump develops the idea that the nature of motivation instigates a negative course of action in the lives of abuse victims consisting of self-harm up